Running head: MOVIE ANALYSIS- WE ARE MARSHALL 1

Movie Analysis – “We Are Marshall”

Lauren Ashton

OGL 365: Sports Leadership

Instructor: Dr. Jorge Ballesteros, Ph.D.

Arizona State University

October 1, 2023
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Movie Analysis – “We Are Marshall”

The movie “We Are Marshall” is based on a true story centered around a devastating

plane crash that killed 75 people, including most of the Marshall University varsity football

team, the head coach, as well as some fans and sponsors. In November 1970, the Marshall

University football team were flying home to West Virgina after an away game in East Carolina.

Their plane crashed right outside of their city of Huntington, killing all 75 passengers aboard.

The town is understandably devastated, and it appears that the right thing to do would be to

indefinitely postpone the football program so the town and University can mourn the fallen.

The Marshall University President, Donald Dedmon, is persuaded to attempt to rebuild

the football team by pleas from a couple of football players who did not make the tragic flight,

including Nate Ruffin. President Dedmon spends countless hours trying to find anyone willing

to accept a head coach position, with no luck. Jack Lengyel hears of the plane crash and wants

to be part of rebuilding the program to make a difference. The movie continues to explore how

the university and community come together to rebuild the community as well as the football

program under the leadership of a new head coach, Jack Lengyel.

I will now discuss sports leadership and the many ways it is portrayed throughout this

movie. In addition, I will discuss how each of the leaders were viewed, as well as the sports

leadership topics that were identified in “We Are Marshall.” Throughout this film there are

may leadership qualities that were portrayed by players, other coaching staff, as well as the

town of Huntington, all while trying to mourn their friends, relatives and peers who died in the

plane crash that left their sleepy town forever changed (We Are Marshall, 2006).
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The first sight of sports leadership identified in this film was that of Nate Ruffin. Nate

was one of the remaining members of the Marshall Thundering Herd. When Nate heard that

the football program was going to be indefinitely postponed, he knew he had to make

something drastic happen to pay respects for his lost teammates, he knew the program had to

go on… for them. Nate rallied petitioners to band together to show the school board how

important football was to this school as well as the town. Ultimately his actions persuaded

University President Donald Dedmon and he agreed to help rebuild the football program. The

actions shown by Nate were inspiring enough that the board, who ultimately wanted football to

be canceled, ended up getting behind him and agreeing to move forward rebuilding a team.

Nate never gave up and continued to show his devotion to football, Marshall University and his

lost teammates.

The next form of sports leadership seen is with President Dedmon. Once the

community and the board agreed to get behind rebuilding the football program, it was now up

to President Dedmon to find a head coach. He needed to find someone that was willing to walk

into this program knowing that everything would have to be started from scratch. He made

countless calls to Marshall University alumni to find someone willing to take on this extreme

responsibility. President Dedmon was hung up on, laughed at and continuously told no.

Feeling defeated, he was almost ready to call it quits when he received a call from Jack Lengyel.

Jack was currently the football coach at the College of Wooster in Ohio. President Dedmon

traveled to Ohio from West Virginia that next day to immediately meet with Jack and discuss

the opportunity. President Dedmon continuously showed perseverance and passion and never

gave up on the goal of finding a new head coach.

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Now we get to Jack Lengyel. Jack is the kind of leader who is always pushing others to

go above and beyond and to be outside of their comfort zones. When Jack arrives at Marshall

University, he immediately identifies that he cannot do this alone. He attempts to recruit prior

assistant coach, Red Dawson, who also missed that fateful flight that killed his team. Red is

struggling with the loss and unable to commit to joining Jack in his efforts to rebuild. Jack

gives Red the space and time he needs to think about joining the coaching staff again.

Ultimately Red decides to join Jack even though he is still mourning and is reluctant to do so.

With the help of Red now, Jack must find players as the NCAA does not allow Freshman to

play varsity football. Jack thinks outside of the box and starts to get creative with recruiting

efforts, identifying star athletes in other sports, such as baseball and soccer. While finding a

handful of players, Jack is still far from having a completed team. He then pushes President

Dedmon to petition the NCAA. President Dedmon says this is a no-win battle and it would be

impossible for the NCAA to change their rules on Freshman playing varsity. Jack is

determined and tells President Dedmon there must be a different way of thinking in these

situations. He pushes the President to visit the NCAA in person and not just continue to send

letters. In the end, the NCAA approves an exception for Marshall University to play Freshman

in their varsity team, however, this never would have happened without Jack pushing

President Dedmon beyond his comfort zone and inspiring him to approach the NCAA in

person (We Are Marhsall, 2006).

Jack brought a positivity and enthusiasm that a town and school were missing. During

practice, Jack was out on the field actively practicing with the team and building their trust and

loyalty. Jack also went out of his way to visit a rival school to ask for tips on how to run a
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specific play they were known for. Jack wanted to ask advice from the expert and didn’t care if

it was a rival school or not. People thought he was crazy for this, but Jack’s goal was to build

relationships in all aspects of the game and that included coaches from rival schools.

With freshman now being able to play varsity, this came with some challenges.

Freshman are smaller players, and they aren’t as experienced. In their first game as a new

team, Marshall University is beaten dramatically, and the team becomes divided. They can’t

function as a team and Coach Jack knows he needs to do something to bring the team together.

One quote that pops up throughout this movie is “winning is everything and nothing else

matters.” Coach Jack believed this motto up until he went to West Virginia. Now to Coach, the

only thing that matters is that they play football win or lose. They need to keep the football

program alive and eventually the team will get to a point where all that matters is winning. For

now, his focus as a coach is supporting the team and giving them the courage to go out on the

field and play the game through their heartbreak and through the doubters who don’t support

football anymore.

Throughout this course we have reviewed several different sports leadership topics. As

they relate to this film, one that stood out to me is from John B. Wooden and his golden rule of

treating others with integrity and respect. Coach Jack was walking into a broken community

that he didn’t fully understand. He always respected the community and those who were

against the football program and always respected his players who were grieving a substantial

loss. He treated every single person with integrity and understanding even when they doubted

him and his coaching abilities. Jack Lengyel didn’t care about winning. Like John Wooden, he
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created an environment where it was more important what you did prior to the final score that

was more important (Wooden & Jamison, 2007, pg. 2).

The second leadership topic that was identified comes from Vince Lombardi and the

character trait of mental toughness. Lombardi describes mental toughness as “a category of

traits that includes the will to win, the willingness to make personal sacrifices and deny the self,

and the will to persevere through pain, opposition, and obstacles to achieve a worthwhile goal”

(Denney & William, 2015, pg. 117). Throughout this movie, there is pain and heartbreak of a

broken community and opposition against an entire football program. Starting with Nate

Ruffin, President Dedmon as well as Coach Jack Lengyel, they continued to push through what

they believed in and always had the right mindset of bringing the community back together

through the game of football. They never gave up and persevered through all the negativity

despite their many challenges of building the team.

Lastly, a character trait that we learned about with Pat Summitt stood out to me and

that is making hard work your passion (Summitt, 1999, pg. 118). Like Pat Summitt, Coach Jack

lived and breathed football with the ultimate goal of building a family community within the

sport and helping people to believe in football and possibilities again after a tragedy. Jack

pushed people to their limits and created results by building trust and loyalty from his team as

well as a broken community full of doubters. He never gave up and because of that, he was

able to make believers out of everyone. At the end of the movie, the team wins their second

game, which is a home game. No one wants to leave the field. Fans, coaches, and families are

so proud of the Marshall University football squad that they want to celebrate for as long as
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they possibly could. All it took was one win to bring the community back together and honor

those who were lost.

Overall, sports leadership is essential in a community as well as a team. Coaches are

extremely impactful and bring hope to others and always inspire others to do their best. Being

able to push people to achieve their absolute best is the strongest quality a coach can possess.

Bringing perseverance, integrity and making hard work your passion are the strongest qualities

a sports leader can have.

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References

McG. 2006. We Are Marshall. Basil Iwanyk Productions.

Summitt, Pat, 1952-2016. (1999). Reach for the Summit: the definite dozen system for

succeeding at whatever you do. New York: Broadway Books.

Williams, P. & Denney, J. (2015). Vince Lombardi on Leadership: Life Lessons from a Five

Time NFL Championship Coach. Advantage Media Group.

Wooden, J. & Jamison, S. (2007). The Essential Wooden: A Lifetime of Lessons on Leaders

and Leadership. McGraw-Hill.